the extra 100.00 is for better cpu cooling the stock intel coolers dont work well for gaming rigs. the intel cpu and mb is faster then the amd for gaming. it also let you drop in the newer brodwell cpu when they come out and if you want to upgrade. for gpu if you can wait a few weeks the newer nvidia 900 cards will be dropping. and knowing amd there going to be dropping newer cards at the same time.

the older fx cpu and mb are three rev behind intel and soon will be 5 cpu rev behind intel. there mb chipsets are two or three years behind intel (pci 3.0 and usb 3.0 and now ddr-4 and soon pci 4.0). on your build the power supply is under sized for gaming. your also missing 100.00 for windows os. heat the biggest killer of parts. that why people use the evo cooler is great cooler at cheap price. a lot of times the plastic legs of the intel cooler dont lock in right and the heat sink falls off. when sitting down with mom tell her going over by 100.00 for these parts will save money in the long run. with the power supply you wont have to replace it when you put in a larger gpu that more power hungry. the intel mb and cpu combo will let you drop in a faster or newer cpu latter on. the amd fx line it a dead line. amd cpu now are the apu.

the older fx cpu and mb are three rev behind intel and soon will be 5 cpu rev behind intel. there mb chipsets are two or three years behind intel (pci 3.0 and usb 3.0 and now ddr-4 and soon pci 4.0). on your build the power supply is under sized for gaming. your also missing 100.00 for windows os. heat the biggest killer of parts. that why people use the evo cooler is great cooler at cheap price. a lot of times the plastic legs of the intel cooler dont lock in right and the heat sink falls off. when sitting down with mom tell her going over by 100.00 for these parts will save money in the long run. with the power supply you wont have to replace it when you put in a larger gpu that more power hungry. the intel mb and cpu combo will let you drop in a faster or newer cpu latter on. the amd fx line it a dead line. amd cpu now are the apu.

Ultra? Why would you think a mid-level processor that isn't very great at gaming and a mid level video card would run the newest games at their max settings?

Keep in mind that both AMD and NVidia have software that does all the video compression for streaming on their cards, so it doesn't really use your processor all that much. So don't bother building a machine around streaming specifically, just build a great gaming machine and it will be able to stream just fine.

Ultra? Why would you think a mid-level processor that isn't very great at gaming and a mid level video card would run the newest games at their max settings?

Keep in mind that both AMD and NVidia have software that does all the video compression for streaming on their cards, so it doesn't really use your processor all that much. So don't bother building a machine around streaming specifically, just build a great gaming machine and it will be able to stream just fine.

Okay I understand but I been looking at some gameplay and this card can run ultra except AA

Ultra? Why would you think a mid-level processor that isn't very great at gaming and a mid level video card would run the newest games at their max settings?

Keep in mind that both AMD and NVidia have software that does all the video compression for streaming on their cards, so it doesn't really use your processor all that much. So don't bother building a machine around streaming specifically, just build a great gaming machine and it will be able to stream just fine.

Okay I understand but I been looking at some gameplay and this card can run ultra except AA

Yeah, technically it will run on ultra, I doubt it will be smooth though. For instance in BF4 you'd probably be averaging somewhere near 30-40FPS with that setup, which means dips down in to 20's or maybe even the teens during multi-player battles. That's not fun, that's just frustrating. Though it's not like the game looks terrible on High instead of Ultra...

I thought the 4GB's of 270X power would pretty much have the performance of a 3GB of 280x

Been away so if someone else pointed this out to him, sorry for saying it again but no. Hardware doesn't work that way. A 4GB 270x has the same power as a 2GB 270x. An R9 280x is nearly double the performance.

Now that I have read up, sorry for the double post, I see flaws and truths in what the others have said.

The Intel stock cooler if you do go with Intel is more than enough for your system. Unless you are overclocking, which you aren't, the stock cooler does a fine job of keeping the CPU cool enough. You can even overclock with them a little bit, I tried it before just out of boredom. So there is no reason to buy a cooler for your system unless you want to buy a piece of hardware that will not increase performance or help in any way really. It will keep the CPU cooler, but the CPU stays under 80C with stock cooler anyways so there is no point.

The PSU is a good point though, getting the better PSU is always a good investment, they last for years, through multiple builds, and give protection and lower power consumption when they are good units.

For Intel over AMD, its true Intel has future upgrade options, less heat, uses less power, and has more performance in 4 out of 5 scenarios. The only time the FX 8-core CPU wins against the i5 really is when doing extracting or compressing files, and heavily multi-threaded work-loads. For games its not as good. So it really is a better choice to go with Intel, the only reason to go with AMD is to save money, because you can get an FX 8320 for about $120 or $130 online and a decent motherboard for maybe $80 and you end up close to $100 lower than the i5. So at its price and performance its still competitive to buy at around those prices. Take your pick which way you want to go with it, as either works.

Finally for the settings, I use an AMD 7850, which is equal to an AMD R7 265. I have it overclocked pretty far, and play games all the time at max settings on Bioshock Infinite, Shogun II Total War, Metro 2033. Only game I have tried and had to lower settings was Tomb Raider and dropping AA fixes everything. So I would say with the faster R9 270x if you stick with it that most games will run at either maxed out settings at 1080p, or maxed out without AA turned on. Occasionally drop an extra setting or two, but still playing in the high end. If you want to for sure max out new games, get an R9 280x which will do it easily.

If you are needing to save money and don't know if you should get Intel with R9 270x or AMD with R9 280x, I would say go AMD with R9 280x as the GPU upgrade will make a much bigger difference than the CPU upgrade.